November 13, 2002 Culture CD Reviews JJ72 | To Sky Funker Vogt Survivor 4 survivor Justin Ray OP Contributor While JJ72 has been called an acquired taste, it’s pos- sible for some that liking them is beyond acquisition. On the other hand, if you enjoyed their self-titled debut album, you won't mind Mark Greaney’s falsetto register, and will probably like I To Sky every bit as much as its antecedent. If you've never heard of JJ72 before, imagine the Wheatus hit, “Teenage Dirtbag,” then add simple piano work, layers of melodramatic keyboards, and mopey lyrics. At its quietest, and best, / Jo Sky sounds tenderly sublime and not unlike a Smashing Pumpkins cover band consisting of feeble choirboys. Unfortunately the heavier tracks, such as “Serpent Sky” and “Formulae,” suffer from unnecessary pro- Thomas Schmidt OP Contributor I have every album that Funker Vogt has ever put out sitting on my CD rack in my room. I have singles, re- mixes, and even unreleased tracks. So when their new album—entitled Survivor was released, | immediately knew what to expect in assuming what this album would be like, right? Wrong! From the first explosive track to the special bonus song, the album just blew me away. The strong lyrics and dance-arifictunes last throughout the album, making Survivor the group's best album to date. Funker Vogt is a darkwave electro band, which formed in Germany in 1995. And although they are based in Germany, the group does the majority of its songs in English. That has been the case with the the other press duction that weighs down the Irish trio. JJ thus never reaches their uplifting potential. JJ72 garnered critical approbation for their first release, and continues to receive acclaim for J To Sky despite several caveats (annoying vocals, pretentious or sappy lyrics, etc.). There are definite moments when the contrast of blender guitar and frothy vocals works very well, and the music is generally well written. However, listening to the record in its entirety can be tiresome. I hesitantly recommend J 7o Sky to fans of Prince, Wheatus, and Michael Jackson, and anyone else who enjoys unnaturally high registers in male singers. band’s previous releases, which are Thanks for Nothing, We Came to Kill, Execution Tracks, and Machine Zeit. Survivor starts off with a bang by beginning with the smash single “Date of Expiration”, which was Number one on the DAC (Deutschen Alternativ Charts) for several weeks. The tracks like “History”, “Compulsions”, and “Final Thrill” give the album life with some music to dance and/or sing along to, and the hard-hitting, big-based “Liigner!” makes you want to jump up, turn up the volume, and bounce to the beat. This is definitely an album that should be on every- body’s wishlist this Christmas. If you're only going to buy one album this year, make it this one. Theatre Review Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet Cindi Levine-Evans & Geordie Evans OP Contributors Professor Constance Leadbelly does not believe that Shakespeare could have meant his plays to be as tragic as they ended up being. She develops a theory that there was a meddling fool that averted the true intent of the plays. She truly begins to believe that they were meant to be comedies. Her life is absorbed with theory and critical analysis but not much else. She suddenly finds herself in the midst of all the action. A role she is not used to playing. But she decides to rise to the challenge. She sets out to prove her theories. Her attempts change history and time by landing within the scenes of Othello and Romeo and Juliet. Desdemona turns out to be a domineering, sexually ravenous wife, whom Othello quite happily gives control over to. Romeo and Juliet, their age betraying them, fight more like brother and sister, one such fight culminating in the untimely death of a pet tortoise. Constance pretends to be a man to get close to Romeo, which reveals that his arrows aren't as straight as we had previously thought. With modern songs thrown in on occasion, gen- der bending, cross-dressing, and confusion all around, this is a romp in the park, as opposed to a walk in the park. In the end the meddling fool is the professor herself.